Within the Woods

Within the Woods

I recently finished my Motivarti apprenticeship with Leighton Hickman and this is one of the images that I worked on under his guidance. I learned a lot about his painting process and what makes a good image even better, so I'm really thankful to have had this opportunity!

This piece was inspired by the Russian folktales of Baba Yaga and her house in the woods that suspends itself on chicken legs. It provided a great springboard for some interesting imagery.

I'll be able to share the Steal Away Home sequel cover soon, so expect that in the coming weeks.

Steal Away Home

I'm so excited to share with everyone my first cover with Simon & Schuster: Steal Away Home by Lois Ruby.  This new edition will be available Fall 2013.  I'll try and put together a process post sometime soon.  I'm currently working on the sequel Soon Be Free which will be available in Spring 2014.  Doing not one, but two covers with Simon & Schuster has been a dream come true, and working with my art director Jessica Handelman even more so! I'm very excited to share the second cover when it's ready.

Detail

I'm also currently apprenticing under Leighton Hickman through Motivarti, which has been an awesome opportunity! I can't wait to show the things I've learned and been working on in a couple of weeks, so stay tuned for that as well :)

Little Women

It's wintertime, and that can only mean more snow-inspired work.  I picked a prompt from Little Women to illustrate, and I really wanted to capture Teddy and Amy as he carries her home after she fell through the ice.  I hope you like it.

May your holidays be merry and bright.  And filled with lots of good food and family!

Mother Monster

Mother Monster

I can finally share the full illustration I recently did of Lady Gaga for Light Grey Art Lab's GIRLS: Fact + Fiction show opening this month.  A print of this piece is available through their gallery shop here.  There is also a book with all of the pieces from the show that features mine on a full page spread available here.

 I scored a full page spread in the book!

As some of you might or might not know, I'm a very big fan of Lady Gaga, so getting to illustrate her was a privilege.   Lady Gaga's relationship with her fans is a personal one and many of them refer to her as "Mother Monster".  I wanted to highlight her status as a pop icon to not only them, but to the rest of the world.

I'm so thankful to have been involved with a show that supports such strong women in both stories and real life :)

Sneak Peak: Lady Gaga

I recently had the pleasure to be included in Light Grey Art Lab's upcoming GIRLS: Fact + Fiction show that opens in a few weeks.  Here's a sneak preview of my piece I did of Lady Gaga.

For all the details on the exhibition, check out their blogpost here.  They're also putting a compilation book together that has crazy amounts of good art and strong female women throughout history and fantasy that you should totally check out. It makes a pretty sweet Christmas gift in anyone's life.

More blogposts incoming of other happenings. (Artcast interview, CTN, etc), so expect multiple updates in the next few days!

First Day

Here's a sample I recently did for a major publisher.  It was kind of fun to channel the joy and sheer terror of the first day of school.  I was the nerd carrying around Harry Potter and my notebooks were filled with Sailor Moon doodles.  To be truthful, not much has changed since then!

My family gets into town for the weekend come tomorrow, so I'll be spending time with them before I start gearing up for CTN.  My postcards and business cards just came in, and I can't wait to share them with everyone at the expo!

Spirit Animal

I whipped out this painting last night of a Native American girl with her spirit animal. I also did a doodle of Shane as I watched him do some drawovers of this piece to help make it better. He's my best critic and a pretty great model too!

I'm loving the fall weather. My pumpkin scented candle has already seen quite a bit of use this past week :)